McCORDSVILLE — A proposed annexation where a 1-million-square-foot building is planned cleared another step after town officials recommended zoning rules for the site.
Cincinnati-based Al. Neyer is seeking the annexation and pursuing the development on about 62 acres south of West County Road 600N east of Mt. Comfort Road. The site is across 600N from McCordsville’s Woodhaven neighborhood, where residents have expressed concerns about traffic and disturbances spurred by the project. Al. Neyer’s development would be speculative, meaning no occupants have yet been secured, but e-commerce has been cited as the type of use the project would be ideal for.
The land’s current industrial zoning through the county means the developer could easily pursue its project as is. If annexed into McCordsville, however, Al. Neyer wants a deal on the first 10 years of the building’s taxes that would be more beneficial than the one the county is accustomed to granting. The company would use those savings to help with its annexation costs and help build Aurora Way, a proposed road south of the site that would keep truck traffic off 600N and away from Woodhaven.
McCordsville Town Council approved the annexation in the first of two votes earlier this month, and the final vote is slated for July.
The town’s plan commission earlier this week approved a favorable recommendation for assigning a McCordsville industrial zoning classification to the site that’s similar to the designation it has through the county.
“The goal of our ordinance and this process is to take the zoning that’s in the county and apply the most similar zoning district that’s in the town to that,” Ryan Crum, the town’s planning and building director, said at the plan commission meeting.
Commission members Devin Stettler, Brianne Schneckenberger, Chad Gooding, Scott Shipley, Tom Strayer and Barry Wood voted in favor of the recommendation. Steve Duhamell was not present.
Wood, also a town council member, voted against the annexation, objecting to the proposed building’s size. But as a plan commission member, he had to apply a different rationale.
“I still have an obligation to pick the best zoning I think would fit in this situation,” he told the Daily Reporter.
The proposed zoning ordinance that will be up for the town council’s consideration outlines further commitments that town staff and Al. Neyer negotiated.
“Neyer has committed to a significant number of tight and discrete conditions for this development to go forward,” Briane House, a lawyer with Greenfield-based Pritzke & Davis representing the developer, told plan commission members.
That includes increasing the distance between 600N’s south right-of-way line and the building from 50 feet to 330 feet. The same distance applies for truck and trailer parking. Truck and trailer access would also be prohibited from accessing and exiting the site from or onto 600N, and would have to occur on Aurora Way.
The ordinance prohibits dozens of different kinds of uses on the property as well, including auto sales, rental and storage.
“These restrictions were designed and negotiated so that this site, which is proposed for a speculative e-commerce building, is really held to the highest standards that one could reasonably request or imagine within the town of McCordsville,” House said.
The project would also need to meet McCordsville’s development standards for an industrial zoning district, which include a 30-foot wide buffer yard consisting of a 5-foot mound with trees and shrubs along 600N. That would also apply to the site’s border with a residence to its west, along with the addition of a 6-foot fence.
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Proposed speculative development
- 1 million+ square feet
- South of West County Road 600N, east of Mt. Comfort Road
- $60.2 million
- Annexation into McCordsville proposed
- Developer: Cincinnati-based Al. Neyer
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